Nonprofit Bridge

While the daily newspaper may be a dying breed, I still find reasons to read the Wall Street Journal on my daily commute.  A few interesting items from yesterday’s edition:

• Tech Giants Ramp Up Their Online Offerings – Many large technology companies have resisted the move to online applications since they are often less profitable than traditional software.  It also requires firms to incur expenses (e.g. servers) that previously were paid by customers.  Unlike installed software, revenue from online products is spread over longer time periods, but may not last if customers don’t continue to use the product.  Except for financial software (Quicken) and sometimes MS Office, I use almost all online software now, yet online software still represents a small piece of the market.  But similar to the case of online donations vs. offline contributions, the market share is increasing rapidly – online software sales are rising more than 40% annually compared with 3.4% for all software.  Ultimately, companies will have to adapt since this is what many consumers want.
• Playing Well with Others -  While this article focuses on the relationship between marketing and R&D, its principles also relate to the benefits of collaboration which I’ve discussed previously, especially important when implementing online campaigns.  For example, does your nonprofit “make sure that everybody recognizes the value that each department brings to the process – and how one side complements the other”?  In many organizations, each department has its own goals and staff are evaluated by how well those objectives are achieved.  But the most important goals usually require many areas to collaborate, something which is still not a part of many organization environments.  It’s important to “get out of your silos” and “focus on the customer.”  In nonprofits, this can easily be translated to viewing your organization as the constituent does – as one.

Finally, are you making the most of your online communications channels?  Nten offers some useful examples of organizations that are doing it right in Online Communications That Don’t Suck. If you decide to embark on a web site redesign, Tech Soup offers Tips for Designing (or Redesigning) a Nonprofit Web Site.  My tip – even though it can be challenging to get everyone to work together (see above), make sure you include all stakeholders throughout the process.  Otherwise, you’ll end up with a site that no one is really happy with.  (And don’t forget to ask real constituents to provide input and feedback, don’t just ask others in your office.)

Convio’s report The Secret of Online Success: Why Structure Matters examines how nonprofits staff for ephilanthropy.  Major themes:

1. Nonprofit organizations are resource constrained – no kidding :>).  “Insufficient staff resources” (mentioned by 90% of 60 nonprofits surveyed) is the major barrier to succeeding online, followed by “budget constraints” (64%) and “senior management not understanding the value of online marketing” (48%).  But having the right people is more important than simply having more staff.   Especially if a nonprofit only has a few people devoted to online efforts, it’s unlikely they’ll have the many skills (see below) required to manage ephilanthropy.
2. Organizational structure matters – will make a big difference on how well online strategy is implemented.  Usual options are: centralized (20% of nonprofits surveyed – all online staff in one department), decentralized (39% – spread across organization – this is model at my organization) and hybrid (41% – somewhere in middle).  While there is no one “best” model, my take is that there has to be multi-department involvement, due to the many types of expertise required for ephilanthropy implementation: strategy, web administration, creative, campaign/project management, analysis and usability.  (Usability is the skill that’s often overlooked but which can have a major impact on how effective a web site is.)
3. Not having a (Internet marketing) plan is planning to fail – Yes, but to be most effective, the online ‘plan’ needs to be integrated with offline campaigns to derive the full benefits of a multichannel strategy.
4. Structure impacts performance – A centralized group may perform best in maximizing online revenue, but a hybrid group may do better in building an email file.  I’m not sure structure matters as much as the level of collaboration that exists within an organization.  Some nonprofits have too many silos where staff prefer to work within their own department and actually avoid contact with other areas.

Convio’s report suggests we take the time to think out what type of structure makes sense in our organizations, and what types of skills may need to be brought in from outside.   It’s also valuable to think about career paths, especially where there isn’t a centralized department (traditional promotion paths may not make sense).  Sometimes in a decentralized setup, online goals may actually conflict with those of the department you’re in.   While we often fear internal reorganizations, in this case in may make sense to consider whether changes are needed so that staff can effectively work together to achieve online goals.

Convio also provides a summary of this report and will offer a webinar to discuss it later this month (I don’t see it on their web site yet but received an email invitation – please contact me if you can’t find it.)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in the New York Fundraising Summit.  I joined Paul Habig of SankyNet and Luke Vander Linden of Carl Bloom Associates to discuss Online Fundraising: Harnessing Technology to Build and Maintain Relationships.  I also attended sessions on Special Events Fundraising and Direct Mail Fundraising.

Some takeaways:

• The benefits of multichannel fundraising and marketing was a major theme at multiple sessions.  While I expected my colleagues at the online fundraising presentation to present these ideas, I was pleasantly surprised to hear this mentioned prominently during the direct mail session.  When I asked why so many organizations still insist on using different staff / departments to handle different channels, it’s because direct mail has long been a dependable income stream.  But now it’s definitely best to not plan and report results from direct mail and email appeals separately
• How to introduce multichannel approaches in your organization?  Get an internal ‘champion’ or work together with a consultant / vendor that your nonprofit already trusts
• How often do you email consituents – when you have relevant content that will be of interest
• Make email appeals part of a planned campaign, not as a series of unrelated messages.
• Use an integrated calendar to plan all constituent communications in advance, not just email.
• Easiest way to secure ticket sales for a special event – include an honoree
• How much will special event attendees participate in other organization activities?  It depends on how much to cultivate them afterwards and get to know what will most attract them to participate.
• Raising money is only one goal of a special event.  Other considerations are meeting constituents, finding board members, generating publicity.  Are you willing to break even on an event to achieve other objectives?
• Segment your list!   Communicate with prospects and past donors differently.
• Looking for ways to supplement your ‘traditional’ events?   Are constituents already engaged in activity with group of devotees who might be willing to make a donation as part of that activity?

I also met Tom & Candy Zackey from Amazing Grace Africa, who described at lunch how they have 17 children, many which they’ve adopted from Liberia, a country in Africa that has been ravaged by civil war for many years.  View more details about their work.

Thanks to the Center for Nonprofit Success for sponsoring this event.